Ask the Readers: Have You Upgraded to Windows 10 April 2018 Update Yet?
The Windows 10 April 2018 Update is causing a lot of headaches for users but is still being pumped out at a rapid pace. Have you upgraded yet?
Microsoft started rolling out Windows 10 version 1803 “April 2018 Update” on April 30th and this is a strange update, to say the least. There are essentially two camps, those who update to 1803 and have no problems at all, and those who update and have several issues. What’s more, as noted by Paul Thurrott and citing data from AdDuplex, the update is rolling out more rapidly than previous Windows 10 feature updates.
Windows 10 Version 1803 April Update
We have advised that you should consider holding off on the update because of the number of issues people have been reporting. However, the company has issued two cumulative updates since the initial release. The most recent – KB4100403 Build 17134.48 — seems to have fixed BSOD issues users were having with SSDs from Intel. Still, we continue to get reports from readers who are having various problems with the update. There is no single issue and the problems vary between manufacturers, devices, and system setups.
With so many problems being reported, it’s hard to believe the update is being rolled out at such a rapid pace. For more details on how the April 2018 Update has been pumped out to various machines, check out this AdDuplex report. And for an interesting conversation regarding this odd update process, and reasoning behind it, I recommend checking out the Windows Weekly podcast.
I did have a problem when updating my main production computer — a Dell XPS 8700. After the upgrade finished, there were no Windows Store apps — including an absent Edge browser. In fact, there was no Windows Store at all. There were also some missing icons and a few display issues. I thought I would need to rollback the update, but to fix it, I did a hard reboot (not a simple restart). Sometimes that is the easiest fix when it comes to troubleshooting PC issues. I completely powered it down, disconnected all devices and cables, including the power cord. Let it sit for five minutes, reconnected everything, and then fired it back up. I have had no problems since.
So, the question is, have you updated to Windows 10 version 1803 yet or you holding off a bit longer? If you have updated, let us know how things are or aren’t working. If you did experience issues, what were they and how did you fix it? Since the last cumulative update was released are you seeing easier updates? For more discussion and troubleshooting advice, make sure to join our Windows 10 Forums.
43 Comments
George
May 31, 2018 at 4:49 am
I updated a couple of weeks ago. Everything is still working perfectly for now.
Byron Prinzmetal
May 31, 2018 at 10:22 am
I UPDATED A BUNCH OF MACHINES (some on day one) AND HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS…KNOCK ON WOOD. On the other hand, I have not needed nor used any of the new features.
Joe Mc
May 31, 2018 at 6:14 am
working great
Paula
May 31, 2018 at 6:33 am
Only problem I have is with a 450Mb OEM partition created with the update which keeps flashing up a low disk space notice.
Jim Shunamon
May 31, 2018 at 1:25 pm
I had this same issue. It was supposed to be fixed in the regular update that followed a week or so after but it wasn’t. There are several articles out on the web including an article on MS website about how to hide the partition so you don’t see it. You have to be comfortable with the command line, but if you are it’s pretty straightforward.
Juanita
May 31, 2018 at 6:33 am
I upgraded and have had no problems –
Graham
May 31, 2018 at 6:35 am
2 PCs won’t update, my main had to be re formatted to accept the update — so quite unsatisfactory.
Jean-Michel
May 31, 2018 at 6:38 am
Hi Brian
I’m in in a similar situation : the updating process worked perfectly. Up to now hv’nt got any particular issue.
“Good shot ! “
Fenoy W. Butler
May 31, 2018 at 6:47 am
I have a Dell XPS 8700 which I updated almost immediately after the April update and have experienced no issues whatsoever. Both the Edge browser and the Store were present and I had no missing icons or display issues.
Mark K, London, UK
May 31, 2018 at 6:49 am
My brother (an architect, not IT man) upgraded. It crashed in the middle of the update – ie after waiting for some 3 hours with a black screen, he decided it must have stopped.!!
We couldn’t reboot – even F8 trick didn’t work. Had to be taken to IT support man, who had to totally rebuild the system and reinstall all apps, proprietary files etc etc. He had no system for 3 days over the weekend – and it cost him over 200GBP to be fixed.
Is it worth trying to get some of that back from M$oft?
Jamies
May 31, 2018 at 12:37 pm
No chance – you’d have to go to arbitration and take the penalty the (MS appointed?) arbitrator specified, and I suspect there is a $65 limit on any awards to the person/organisation complaining against MS.
HOWEVER – maybe a good time to recommend a good backup process designed to allow recovery from a system failure. – and consider one that takes out the motherboard, internal drives, and any attached ones – such as the one the backup is being written to! –
Yep – been there!
Becky
May 31, 2018 at 6:49 am
We are holding off on it because of all the bad press. We are beginning the process of moving over 50 systems from 1607 up to 1709. Ugh!
jamies
May 31, 2018 at 7:06 am
Seems to be basically OK on an older Lenovo thinkcentre 2Ghz, 2 core 2GB RAM.
annoyingly narrow scroll bar on News.
Some time-filling games are now locking-up at random times.
IE 11 seems to be slower to respond – could be the OS, or just loads more advertising in the currently vogue constantly expanding down page design – specially for those paying for download data.
While you look at the first article on a news feed type site – the one that got you to link to the site, that site sends you more and more and more kwrap to go at the end of the web page.
Well you would not be intelligent enough to look at a list of other stories and click on any you wanted to look at.
And a problem I was investigating where tasks scheduled to run at BST failed to run if the PC was not powered up at least an hour before that BST time – is no longer apparent.
Jamies
May 31, 2018 at 12:56 pm
Addition to the above Basically OK comment
OS is 64 bit Win-10 N Pro – so no browser and no multimedia in the original install.
The system has been set to have Edge – but, until MS get that working in a safe, reliable and easy to use mode, IE11 is installed as the default browser.
Also installed the media pack.
So – 1803 installed and … no video player – HTML5 not acceptable –
Ignoring the MS forum suggestion of RESET in IE options working, went to the MS site and looked for media player for win-10 and told the system to install that (again)
Restarted the system – wait – wait – wait – NO Fingers and leave that louse alone – You were told WAIT!
Eventually get allowed to log-in – and … … no change – still no video playing!
More research – and … — …. Seems that I have to go to the Microsoft Support pages and select the media facility package that should be installed for the version of the OS –
Yes – the Media pack for win 10 needs to be the one indicated in
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3145500/media-feature-pack-list-for-windows-n-editions
not 3010081
From the above – select the OS version, then select the OS version (again!) Confirm, and select the OS version – sigh Again!
KB4057437 installed for my 64 bit 1803 N version
Yea – verily MS testing and support leaves the user in a deeply desirous state –
After the restart I can now view videos
BUT – the Defend – eer status icon is showing Green – when it usually shows orange – I will NOT allow MS to take full diagnostics including what may be corporate confidential or even just data subject to GDPR
Ah – I need some fixes –
Ah the fix is for De-fend-or which is showing a green status ??? !
apply the fix – definitions update – and with that update, the status goes from green to ORANGE.
And just for fun – the BST timed started task, again – did not run – so that means that currently there is NO system backup with today’s work.
Yes – Win 10 wins every time in any contest with the users wishes.
Chris Strijbos
May 31, 2018 at 7:07 am
I’ve update my system a few days ago and I have no problems.
David Frederick
May 31, 2018 at 7:09 am
I updated. Adobe Photoshop CC ceased working properly. I got messages that “saves” were not possible for want of adequate free memory. Adobe tech support said the problem is a change to memory management that was made with the recent Windows 10 release. I turned my computer over to the tech for implementation of a work-around. I did not begin to understand the work-around as it unfolded on my screen. But, big picture, the tech entered the registry and altered some hkey, the (successful) result of which is that Photoshop now has allocated to it sufficient RAM.
TOM PAGH
May 31, 2018 at 7:09 am
Updated to 1803 on 05/07/18 on a HP ENVY dv-7. No issues. All is well.
Jim Cummings
May 31, 2018 at 7:12 am
I have updated on three machines including a 8700 with SSD. No problems whatsoever (fingers crossed).
Ron Lund
May 31, 2018 at 7:13 am
Nope! I’m waiting for you guys to say it’s OK to do so. I don’t have any real desire to do the upgrade until I’ve learned that it has all the bugs worked out.
Willy Fontana
May 31, 2018 at 7:13 am
I did update to 1803 last weekend and I didn’t notice any problem so far.
My notebook is an HP Pavillion, core i5, 8 GB of RAM.
Philip McDermott
May 31, 2018 at 7:31 am
I upgraded, but then could not access my Excel 2013. When I rolled back the update, Excel worked normally.
Larry Henry
May 31, 2018 at 7:36 am
Ive updated all three. one desk top and two laptops. have had no trouble with either
stu
May 31, 2018 at 8:36 am
I updated, light user, but no problems noted as yet
Bob
May 31, 2018 at 9:26 am
I updated and no problems yet!
George Wooden
May 31, 2018 at 9:28 am
I have two HP laptops that were updated on day one and I have experienced no problems at all. I did go to Microsoft and obtain the download rather than waiting for the rollout to reach me.
Allan Ogg
May 31, 2018 at 9:42 am
Updated my Lenovo B50-30 with no problems. The follow-up update (1803, OS Build 17134.81) killed my machine mid-update due to the Lenovo Service Engine in the BIOS. Disabled that and away it went.
ben mccoy
May 31, 2018 at 9:53 am
i have tried every trick i know (short of a total O.S. reinstallation) to get that idiotic April update installed and still i get “unable to install…undoing changes”; i just used a widget to turn-off this update until someone can tell me how to successfully install the sucker!!!
Cee
May 31, 2018 at 10:19 am
1803 Feature Update did not work.
The 1803 Feature Update forced a restart and upgrade that causes Windows to not boot properly:“The Black Desktop of Death”, with “Rollback Loop”. I ended up with a mostly blank desktop, black background, and error messages when I tried to rollback putting me into a loop and no rollback. I had a start icon that started NOTHING. CTL+ALT+DEL started Task Manager which permitted to verify that the 1803 Feature Update completed but was stuck. I can’t rollback and I can’t reinstall the the 1803 update because it is already installed….
I have a image copy (clone) of the pre 1803 “C:” boot drive so I will probably be forced to install the copy (windows version 1709) and incur some loss of personal data.
Suggestion to others: Clone your “C:” boot drive immediately prior to the 1803 update. Don’t rely on the Windows Rollback to undo a failed update.
George Wooden
May 31, 2018 at 10:28 am
Ben McCoy, go here and download the assistant https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Michieux
May 31, 2018 at 12:27 pm
No problems here, either. Seamless update installation on May 5th.
G Glover
May 31, 2018 at 2:14 pm
How do i find what update i have installed .. Sorry but i’m not a PC wizard george
Steve Krause
May 31, 2018 at 10:39 pm
Just hit the Windows key and type – winver
George Wooden
June 1, 2018 at 10:41 am
G Glover:
Go to the notification center, bottom right of the taskbar left click there and from the pop-up click on all settings. From the new pop-up click on Update & Security, next click on View Update History. This is where you will see the most current Feature s Update you have installed and below that you will the Quality Updates that have been installed for both Cumulative updates and Security Updates that have been installed since your last Features Update.
I hope this helps you understand the update process a little better. Have a great weekend.
Russell Cairns
May 31, 2018 at 5:46 pm
I upgraded my three computers as soon as version 1803 was available: a Dell desktop (about 6 years old); a Dell Alienware desktop (2 years old); and a Dell laptop (five years old). All three updated with no problems and I haven’t encountered any problems since although I have taken the precaution of further updating to OS build 17134.48 since.
DebbyS
May 31, 2018 at 6:13 pm
I’m using Windows 10 Home edition. I’m still on Version 1709 (OS Build 16299.431). The last time I was told MS wanted to upgrade (as in “lie back and enjoy it, honey”), I think it upgraded some stuff, but it wasn’t a massive upgrade (didn’t take hours). I suspect that MS tried that Big Update, but it failed. I fear checking my update status because MS may think “Oh, you want to do it now? Okay, you’ll enjoy it, I promise!” As everything is working okay at the moment, I’d rather keep things as they are, with the exception of updating antivirus and that kind of critical thing.
Alan King
June 1, 2018 at 4:28 am
I Upgraded a few weeks ago and so far no problems although there is one little niggle. my main browser is Firefox (I have ongoing issues with Edge…but that’s another story) Firefox page loading seems to be much slower now.
Bryan James
June 2, 2018 at 3:05 am
I got an endless rotating screen after the update and because it was then offline I couldn’t make changes via a Microsoft account (it was telling me wrong password when I tried to ‘go back’). I contacted Microsoft and spent ages trying dos commands. I later discovered the system was in read-only mode and not accepting commands. This went on for two days. I finally managed to restore a backup but discovered the update was still there and wanting to restart to install itself. I blocked that by deferring it but am now stuck not being able to get any updates and wondering how I can get around that?
I don’t want to revert to factory settings as it will take days to restore all my programs. This also happened to my flatmate on a similar computer and I managed to fix that too but it’s in the same situation with the update downloaded and blocked from installing.
The laptops are HP Envy with SSD – another complication as I read SSD machines are having problems with the update. Microsoft has released a fix for Toshiba SSD but I can see no mention of other laptops. All-in-all it’s been an effin nightmare with no solution in sight and it’s made me wary of future updates compared to the confidence I had before.
Any suggestions on solving this problem – apart from wiping my laptop would be welcome.
Bryan James
June 2, 2018 at 10:45 am
Update: I couldn’t see my post after I posted it (have just had an acknowledgment) and thought it was lost in cyberspace somewhere. So I thought, F**k it, I’ll have another go, I should be able to find a way out if it happens again and I had a backup and boot USB at hand.
And wadaya know, it worked just letting it do its thing! After an initial failure that was probably to do with me changing every possible setting to prevent it installing. Use the Troubleshooter if you get a failure message it will fix non-obvious issues. What a relief! Being a bit of an old geek, I hate stuff not being up to date. Oh, and I turned off Malwarebytes and a few other programs I could see open in the taskbar.
But it’s not what we expect from Microsoft, is it? They really need to do better next time. I’ve wasted days on this and I’m obviously not alone in that. I’m also never going to check for updates again!
Karma Power
June 2, 2018 at 11:43 am
Being an insider on the slow ring, my laptop has tried to update or Microsoft has tried to update my device and till date it has failed 78 times. I am now on 1703 (16299.431) and I love it. But since I am an insider I can’t pause or stop the updates even on metered connections.
Thank you for your articles,
Martin James
June 4, 2018 at 1:12 am
Hi
I updated all 3 of my machines – 2 HP laptops and an ASUS desktop – as soon as the update came out.
1 Laptop took 4 attempts to update, the others updated 1st time.
The laptop that took the 4 attempts had a bit of a “not responding” problem with an open code accounting program, but all seems well now.
The other 2 have had no apparent problems.
James
June 5, 2018 at 10:59 am
too big of a hurry to describe problems, but will if asked. System completely crashed. Would not reboot. couldn’t find desktop. Took to repair shop. They wiped, reinstalled, updated for $186.00. If class action lawsuit, I want in. This updated automatically with little or no input from me. Mad as hell!!
raunak
June 5, 2018 at 7:00 pm
yes i got yesterday feature update to 1803 but after installing i got brightness issue which stuck on max on my hp g62 notebook updating driver cannot fix this issue .
hope Microsoft will fix this bug in next update
thank you
Jim Shunamon
June 6, 2018 at 11:33 am
It appears that I am missing at least one of the new features that was supposed to be included in this update. I do not have the “Clutter Free” printing option in Edge.
Is anyone else missing this feature?